Cops, firm don’t agree on death data

There is a huge discrepancy in the data on fatalities on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway given by the expressway firm and the police.

There is a huge discrepancy in the data on fatalities on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway given by the expressway firm and the police.

According to the expressway firm, 212 persons had died in four years (between January 2008 and December 2011). But the city police claimed 337 had died during the period.

The expressway concessionaire, Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Limited (DGSCL), that files the monthly road accidents report with the NHAI has maintained that the very first year of operation in 2008, 73 persons died as against the police claim of 115 on the stretch between Delhi-Gurgaon border and Kherki Daula toll plaza.

The number of accident deaths in the following years was reported at 47, 46 and 46 in 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively. The police records with huge difference show the figures at 66, 70 and 86 during the following years.

A DGSCL official claimed that the firm’s figures were faultless. He said, “The police might have included the fatalities taken place on arterial roads also. That is why there is a huge gap. We record only deaths happened on the expressway.”

The police, however, stuck to their guns.

According to them, they arrived at the figure on the basis of FIRs filed in the area police stations all along the expressway.

“Our records on the expressway accidents and deaths, including injuries, are based on the basis of the accidents reported at various police stations. It was for the first time in 2011 that we started to maintain accidents data separately for each stretch such as between Delhi border toll plaza and Rajiv Chowk, between Rajiv Chowk and Hero Honda Chowk and so on,” said Bharti Arora, DCP (traffic), Gurgaon police.